Plato’s “Meno” --continued. Meno’s attempts (78b-79e): Virtue is the power to acquire good...
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Transcript of Plato’s “Meno” --continued. Meno’s attempts (78b-79e): Virtue is the power to acquire good...
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Plato’s “Meno”--continued
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Meno’s attempts (78b-79e):
• Virtue is the power to acquire good things.• Virtue is the power to acquire good things
justly or virtuously.• When Meno’s second try doesn’t work out,
how does he react?
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Meno’s Ready to Give Up (80 a-c)
• Dogmatism: Unwillingness to examine one’s own views carefully.
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Psychological studies on (in)competenceDavid Dunning--Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, Dec. 2000.
• Most incompetent people don’t know that they are incompetent.
• People who do things badly are usually quite confident--more confident than people who do things well.
• Some college students who do badly on a test will spend hours in the professor’s office explaining why the professor’s answers are wrong.
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Thomas Jefferson:“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”
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Remaining questions:
• Will Meno admit his ignorance?
• Does Socrates know what virtue is, and whether it can be taught?
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Meno’s State of Mind:
He blames Socrates for confusion.
He won’t admit his own ignorance.
He claims that we can’t search forwhat we don’t already know.
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Meno’s Paradox (80d)
Cynical thesis about the search for knowledge:
“How will you look for it, Socrates, when youdo not know at all what it is? … If you shouldmeet with it, how will you know that this is thething that you did not know?”
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When we are looking for something,do we “not know at all what it is?”
Looking up the spelling of a word?
Trying to define “virtue”?
Find me a widget.
Looking for a cure for cancer?
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Demonstrationwith theslave boy(82b-85b)
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Slave-Boy Demonstration (82b-85b)
2
2
How do we createa square that has double the area ofthis square?
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Slave-Boy Demonstration (82b-85b)
2
2
Double the length of each side?
4
4
But 2 x 2 = 4and 4 x 4 = 16.
Too big!
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Slave-Boy Demonstration (82b-85b)
2
2
Increase eachside by half?
3
3
But 2 x 2 = 4and 3 x 3 = 9.
Still too big!
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Slave boy admits ignorance (84a):
“By Zeus, Socrates, I do not know.”
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Slave-Boy Demonstration (82b-85b)
2
2
Consider this line (85a).
“Clever men callthis the diagonal.”
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Slave-Boy Demonstration (82b-85b)
2
2
What if webuild a squareon the diagonal?
The diamondsquare is 8 unitsin area.
Got it!
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“By Jove, I think she’s got it!”
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Now the slave boy knows,but he didn’t know before.
• This shows it is possible to successfully search for knowledge. Don’t be lazy!
• What kind of knowledge did the slave boy gain?
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Types of Knowledge:
• A Posteriori Knowledge: Empirical knowledge, based on experience.
• A Priori Knowledge: Conceptual Knowledge, based on thought.
• “Prior” (before) or “Posterior” to (after) experience.
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Now the slave boy knows,but he didn’t know before.
• This shows it is possible to successfully search for knowledge. Don’t be lazy!
• What kind of knowledge did the slave boy gain?
• How was the slave boy able to gain the knowledge?
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How did the slave boy gain the knowledge?
• Socrates’ Account (81d-e & 85c-86c):
The Theory of Recollection• Socrates’ questions stirred up buried
memories the slave boy’s soul had acquired in a previous existence.
• The knowledge was innate.
• Socrates’ didn’t tell him the answer.
Did he? “Leading” questions?
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Traditional Conception:
“Teach” means “Tell the student the answer.”
“Learn” means “Hear the answer from the teacher.”
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Socratic Method of Teaching
• No lecturing: Can’t hand someone knowledge on a silver platter.
• Law School?
• Philosophy classes?
• Students learn best by figuring it out for themselves.
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Socrates as a Midwife
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Socrates’ Account (85c-86b):
• Slave-boy expressed only his own opinions.• So these opinions were in him.• So they must have been there already--They
were simply recollected.• No one taught him in this lifetime.• So he must have gained them in a previous life.• Our souls must exist before this life.
Wow!
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Is this a good argument?• Slave-boy expressed only his own opinions.
• I.e., they weren’t forced upon him.
• So these opinions were in him.
• In the sense that he does believe them
• So they must have been there already--They were simply recollected.
• No, he could have just now adopted them as his own.
• So, it’s not a good argument.So, it’s not a good argument.
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Is this a good argument?• Suppose the slave-boy had recollected this
knowledge--would that explain how he gained it?
• We’d still need an explanation how it was gained previously.
• So the Theory of Recollection only pushes back the problem one step, it doesn’t solve the problem!
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Did Socrates believe the Theory of Recollection?
86b: “I do not insist my argument is right in all…respects”
Then why did he give it?
Counter Meno’s Cynical thesis.
Get us to think for ourselves:Can we find any flaws?Can we think of a better account?
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An alternate account?
• The slave-boy figured it out for himself.
• Even if you think Socrates asked him leading questions, still, at some point, someone must have figured it out for himself.
• We can gain conceptual knowledge by critical reflection.
• Socrates taught him without telling him the answer.
• Sudden understanding feels like recollection.
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From the journal Science, published by AAAS, Friday, January 19, 2006:
WASHINGTON - Even if you never learned the difference between a triangle, a rectangle and a trapezoid, and you never used a ruler, a compass or a map, you would still do well on some basic geometry tests, according to a new study.Using a series of nonverbal tests, scientists claim to have uncovered core knowledge of geometry in villagers from a remote region of the Amazon who have little schooling or experience with maps and speak a language without the mathematical language of geometry.
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Which one doesn’t belong?
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First Paper Assignmentposted on-line at
<www.phil.vt.edu/Jklagge/coursepage.htm>
• State and briefly explain the requirements on a good definition.
• Illustrate their importance by giving bad definitions that fail each requirement.
• Then give a good definition that satisfies all the requirements.
• Contact the Writing Center for help writing.• Due in discussion section on February 8.